Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

Not to mention that the longer they wait without releasing the UOT, the more new fans the franchise gets who are only familiar with the modified versions. The UOT becomes increasingly obsolete and the ones who care further dwindle in number. I'm not even sure that Lucas' death will really mean anything after a point. They should be preserved for posterity, and maybe they are (I've honestly lost track of that information), but making them available for consumers will become less and less of a priority as time goes on. Sad but true.

Agreed. I really don't see the unaltered originals ever happening at this point. Disney probably only sees a small minority of fans who care about this anyway. I'm also not certain even after Lucas has passed that they would go against his wishes.

These 2012 4K masters will be the official definitive version for God knows how many years since 8K is going to mean nothing here so no reason to "remaster" these again in their minds.

Hell, we had 15+ years of these crappy 2004 masters and it was only 4K (and really 3D) that forced the new work. These new masters will be recycled in one form or another for decades in all likelihood.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Scott in UK

Everything im about to say isnt directed at you personally, but im just gonna use your comment to bounce off of.

Dunno about to quick to think it, but it's certainly no surprise that people did.. New company, new opportunities! The only thing that then put up the stone wall or held up a big sign of 'End of Subject' was the time when Kathleen Kennedy said she wouldnt want to release the films differently to how George wants them, or wouldn't want to cause friction to her friendship with him in the process.

If someone's answer would be that it's a contractual agreement, well i dont think it would matter even if it isnt/wasnt, because i think she still wouldn't wanna do it because of probably then causing an awkwardness in her relationship with George Lucas.

I dunno if Kathleen Kennedy is the be all and end all, (i know she is in some respects of her position) but that led me on to think maybe an only other answer or solution to how they could get released, is if someone else at Disney made the decision who has little or no involvement with Lucas. Then that person wouldn't be coming from a position of having to worry or care what George thinks. Or if George did get angry, that person can just say, "Well George, that's business". Or to put it another way, "We own these films now George, we can do what we want with them".


One final point to do with it being said the market is to small or the audience figure of those who have an intrest in the UOT is to small for Disney to bother with re-releasing them, well in one way i maybe dont agree, is that studios are constantly releasing old or obscure movies on Blu-Ray which surely must have an audience level at least on a par with those intrested in the UOT.

Unfortunately Disnee isn't those studios. And most of those old or obscure movies are coming from indies (Criterion, Arrow, Shout, Kino et al) who have licensed them from the studios, they're not coming from the studios themselves. Even the amazing Warner Archive Collection is its own little outfit within Warners.

[Scottishguy]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Agreed. I really don't see the unaltered originals ever happening at this point. Disney probably only sees a small minority of fans who care about this anyway. I'm also not certain even after Lucas has passed that they would go against his wishes.

These 2012 4K masters will be the official definitive version for God knows how many years since 8K is going to mean nothing here so no reason to "remaster" these again in their minds.

Hell, we had 15+ years of these crappy 2004 masters and it was only 4K (and really 3D) that forced the new work. These new masters will be recycled in one form or another for decades in all likelihood.

Is anything 20th century, early 21st ever going to be presented in native 8K though?

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Scottishguy

Is anything 20th century, early 21st ever going to be presented in native 8K though?

I envision a lot of 4K (and 2K) movie masters to be upscaled to 8K with streaming down the road.

[Scottishguy]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I envision a lot of 4K (and 2K) movie masters to be upscaled to 8K with streaming down the road.

This might come in handy if I ever get a 100 inch TV

[Scott in UK]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Unfortunately Disnee isn't those studios. And most of those old or obscure movies are coming from indies (Criterion, Arrow, Shout, Kino et al) who have licensed them from the studios, they're not coming from the studios themselves. Even the amazing Warner Archive Collection is its own little outfit within Warners.

I understand your point,. Altho from a money issue if smaller indies can afford to knock these films out, and even make profit (which surely they are, because business is about profit) then someone as big as Disney can without having to be bothered about a big return.

[Scott in UK]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Do you 2019 bro? I don't think we're allowed to mention any of these by name any more but there are loads of fan restorations out there, to the point where any truly dedicated SW nut will have acquired the UOT already (and in rather spiffy form, not those shite DVDs) which also makes any kind of official release less likely.

Why would it make any official release unlikely? Surely an official release would mean people would then not have to make homemade versions anymore. Or if you mean it makes it unlikely because people already own the homemade versions, (so decreases the intrest in buying it) well im sure people would still rather jump on buying the official version instead of only having the homemade one.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Scott in UK

I understand your point,. Altho from a money issue if smaller indies can afford to knock these films out, and even make profit (which surely they are, because business is about profit) then someone as big as Disney can without having to be bothered about a big return.

Again though, that's kinda the point: Disnee are so big that they're not interested in breaking even or making peanuts, nor are they interested in licensing their stuff out. They've rarely skimped on spending for restorations so money isn't the issue there at the source level, they just can't be arsed with all the faff that physical media entails if they're not going to make bank from it (like them dumping 3D BD in North America because people were parting out the packages on eBay). Some will then argue that this would surely not apply to the UOT, that it'd sell amazingly well on disc, but even if it did there's no guarantee that other older/obscure content would sell in those kinds of numbers so we're back where we started.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Scottishguy

This might come in handy if I ever get a 100 inch TV

I think re-selling the same movie over and over again is going to come to a major slow down for studios as they surely know. There are so many times you can go to the well and they've been doing it for nearly 40 years. Diminishing returns. Physical media is tapped out with UHD BD and I just don't see that kind of opportunity going forward unless they move to a streaming system where you have to pay for the movie each time you want to see it (say with upscale 8K and maybe a new HDR layer, or real rec 2020, etc. ) when physical media is no longer made. I think deep down, the studios have really always wanted this "pay per view" approach. Just speculation, we'll see.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

The DVDs are shite but I'm sticking with them. Just can't be bothered to find and download the fan ones.

Dude- you list Star Wars in your "Top 15"!

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Dude- you list Star Wars in your "Top 15"!

It’s not a question of my love for the movies, just my general uneasiness about piracy.

[KMFDMvsEnya]

Those that have capable Dolby Vision displays, how is the image quality in respects to color grading, contrast, black levels, saturation, and peak brightness.

Overall I like the image of the color grading with the SDR stream via the Xbox 1S but I found various instances where the image appeared a little lacking in saturation whereas the majority of ANH and ESB looked great.

The disparity I am referring to can be easily seen in ESB from the point forward of when Luke arrives to Bespin to the end. Many shots look great shot but others appear mostly good but a bit lacking in color.

Two examples:
When Lando is about to free Leia, Chewbacca, and C3-PO, the colors appear a bit stronger in certain shots versus others. Lando's complexion is a little more darker in some shots whereas others he appears a little lighter or C3-PO appears a more strongly golden hues but then in other shots looks a little lighter.

Same things happens throughout the lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader. Apart from those concerns it is nice that the lightsabers do not look as dull as before, possibly due to the DNR process, and having shadow detail restored.

I wonder if these discrepancies has more to do with the HDR-SDR down conversion rather than an inconsistent color grading.

PS
Also most of the shots with space appear excellent with space appearing a deep black. The various shots in the Millennium Falcon cockpit that had severe crushed blacks in the prior transfers look much better.

Also Vader's suit is more visible but looks excellent in the final moments of the duel when he is informing Luke of the bleak truth of their connection.

[Roonan]

It seems the aspect ratio has been changed. Where the 2011 BDs are 2.35:1, the new digital versions seem to be 2.39:1. I've checked both The Phantom Menace and A New Hope, but if anyone could upload some more shots from the other movies just to confirm it would be helpful.

[Noremac Mij]

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

Those that have capable Dolby Vision displays, how is the image quality in respects to color grading, contrast, black levels, saturation, and peak brightness.

Overall I like the image of the color grading with the SDR stream via the Xbox 1S but I found various instances where the image appeared a little lacking in saturation whereas the majority of ANH and ESB looked great.

The disparity I am referring to can be easily seen in ESB from the point forward of when Luke arrives to Bespin to the end. Many shots look great shot but others appear mostly good but a bit lacking in color.

Two examples:
When Lando is about to free Leia, Chewbacca, and C3-PO, the colors appear a bit stronger in certain shots versus others. Lando's complexion is a little more darker in some shots whereas others he appears a little lighter or C3-PO appears a more strongly golden hues but then in other shots looks a little lighter.

Same things happens throughout the lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader. Apart from those concerns it is nice that the lightsabers do not look as dull as before, possibly due to the DNR process, and having shadow detail restored.

I wonder if these discrepancies has more to do with the HDR-SDR down conversion rather than an inconsistent color grading.

PS
Also most of the shots with space appear excellent with space appearing a deep black. The various shots in the Millennium Falcon cockpit that had severe crushed blacks in the prior transfers look much better.

Also Vader's suit is more visible but looks excellent in the final moments of the duel when he is informing Luke of the bleak truth of their connection.

Yup, for these to be enjoyable color saturation must be turned up a good bit. Other than that, these are the best releases since laserdisc.

[Jay G.]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Unfortunately Disnee isn't those studios. And most of those old or obscure movies are coming from indies (Criterion, Arrow, Shout, Kino et al) who have licensed them from the studios, they're not coming from the studios themselves...

Disney has always had an interesting relationship with Criterion, in that for Disney owned films that are part of the Criterion collection, Criterion produces/authors the sets, but Disney (via Buena Vista) manufactures and distributes them. I'm not sure they're make a Criterion set of Star Wars though.

Disney isn't against including alternate cuts for films though, when they exist, even a cut with limited. The animated Beauty and the Beast Blu-ray has 3 cuts on it, including a workprint cut, although there's some minor issues with the seamless branching on one that made one scene look like how it appeared in another.

I think the likeliest release of the unaltered cuts would be as a bonus feature on a new "Complete Saga" set comprising of episodes 1-9. I don't think they'd ever get a standalone release without the new cuts accompanying them, since Lucas considers the new cuts the "true" version of the films, but they may be able to get away with including them as a "bonus," like the LE DVDs. Also, the price premium on getting people to buy a massive 9 movie set could justify including them as extras.

[KMFDMvsEnya]

Originally Posted by Noremac Mij

Yup, for these to be enjoyable color saturation must be turned up a good bit. Other than that, these are the best releases since laserdisc.

I disagree that these need to have the saturation increased by a large degree, especially when much of the material looks fine and balanced. Increasing saturation with the SDR stream will make the outliers appears good but will cause the other material to appear overly punchy.

My theory is the discrepancies for some shots is potentially due to the HDR-SDR conversion.

Observations by folks with decent DV (or HDR10) displays could prove illuminating.

[Noremac Mij]

Originally Posted by KMFDMvsEnya

I disagree that these need to have the saturation increased by a large degree, especially when much of the material looks fine and balanced. Increasing saturation with the SDR stream will make the outliers appears good but will cause the other material to appear overly punchy.

My theory is the discrepancies for some shots is potentially due to the HDR-SDR conversion.

Observations by folks with decent DV (or HDR10) displays could prove illuminating.

On my OLED C8, watching in DV, I increased color saturation as the picture otherwise looked slightly washed.

[Radioactive]

Stupid question, go easy on me please lol.

My LGTV has the option to stream these in HDR10. Does that imply 4K resolution or does it have to do with the frame rate? My PS4 ostensibly streams in 4K but the color and detail for whatever reason doesn't seem to match that of streaming straight from the TV app.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Radioactive

Stupid question, go easy on me please lol.

My LGTV has the option to stream these in HDR10. Does that imply 4K resolution or does it have to do with the frame rate? My PS4 ostensibly streams in 4K but the color and detail for whatever reason doesn't seem to match that of streaming straight from the TV app.

I streamed some of TPM and the first episode of The Mandalorian last night in 4K HDR. TPM still looks like a DNR mess with better colors while The Mandalorian looks absolutely impeccable.

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

I streamed some of TPM and the first episode of The Mandalorian last night in 4K HDR. TPM still looks like a DNR mess with better colors while The Mandalorian looks absolutely impeccable.